Beyond just being loaded with “artery-clogging saturated fat” and sodium, bacon has been long considered unhealthy due to the use of nitrates and nitrites in the curing process. Many conventional doctors, and well-meaning friends and relatives, will say you’re basically asking for a heart attack or cancer by eating the food many Paleo enthusiasts lovingly refer to as “meat candy”.
The belief that nitrates and nitrates cause serious health problems has been entrenched in popular consciousness and media. Watch this video clip to see Steven Colbert explain how the coming bacon shortage will prolong our lives thanks to reduced nitrates in our diets.
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In fact, the study that originally connected nitrates with cancer risk and caused the scare in the first place has since been discredited after being subjected to a peer review. There have been major reviews of the scientific literature that found no link between nitrates or nitrites and human cancers, or even evidence to suggest that they may be carcinogenic. Further, recent research suggests that nitrates and nitrites may not only be harmless, they may be beneficial, especially for immunity and heart health. Confused yet? Let’s explore this issue further.
Find out why you shouldn’t be concerned about nitrates & nitrites in bacon.
Where Does Nitrate/Nitrite Exposure Come From?
It may surprise you to learn that the vast majority of nitrate/nitrite exposure comes not from food, but from endogenous sources within the body. (1)
When it comes to food, vegetables are the primary source of nitrites. On average, about 93% of nitrites we get from food come from vegetables. It may shock you to learn that one serving of arugula, two servings of butter lettuce, and four servings of celery or beets all have more nitrite than 467 hot dogs. (2) And your own saliva has more nitrites than all of them! So before you eliminate cured meats from your diet, you might want to address your celery intake. And try not to swallow so frequently.
All humor aside, there’s no reason to fear nitrites in your food, or saliva. Recent evidence suggests that nitrites are beneficial for immune and cardiovascular function; they are being studied as a potential treatment for hypertension, heart attacks, sickle cell and circulatory disorders. Even if nitrites were harmful, cured meats are not a significant source, as the USDA only allows 120 parts per million in hot dogs and bacon. Also, during the curing process, most of the nitrite forms nitric oxide, which binds to iron and gives hot dogs and bacon their characteristic pink color. Afterwards, the amount of nitrite left is only about 10 parts per million.
And if you think you can avoid nitrates and nitrites by eating so-called “nitrite- and nitrate-free” hot dogs and bacon, don’t be fooled. These products use “natural” sources of the same chemical like celery and beet juice and sea salt, and are no more free from nitrates and nitrites than standard cured meats. In fact, they may even contain more nitrates and nitrites when cured using “natural” preservatives.
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What Happens When You Eat Nitrates and Nitrites
It’s important to understand that neither nitrate nor nitrite accumulate in body. Ingested nitrate from food is converted into nitrite when it contacts our saliva, and of the nitrate we eat, 25% is converted into salivary nitrite, 20% converted into nitrite, and the rest is excreted in the urine within 5 hours of ingestion. (3) Any nitrate that is absorbed has a very short half-life, disappearing from our blood in under five minutes. (4) Some nitrite in our stomach reacts with gastric contents, forming nitric oxide which may have many beneficial effects. (5, 6) You can listen to my podcast “Does Red Meat Increase Your Risk of Death?” for more information on this topic.
In general, the bulk of the science suggests that nitrates and nitrites are not problematic and may even be beneficial to health. Critical reviews of the original evidence suggesting that nitrates/nitrites are carcinogenic reveals that in the absence of co-administration of a carcinogenic nitrosamine precursor, there is no evidence for carcinogenesis. (7) Newly published prospective studies show no association between estimated intake of nitrite and nitrite in the diet and stomach cancer. (8) Nitric oxide, formed by nitrite, has been shown to have vasodilator properties and may modulate platelet function in the human body, improving blood pressure and reducing heart attack risk. (9, 10, 11) Nitrates may also help boost the immune system and protect against pathogenic bacteria (12, 13, 14)
So what do we take from this? There’s no reason to fear nitrates and nitrites in food. No reason to buy nitrate-free, uncured bacon. No reason to strictly avoid cured meats, particularly those from high quality sources (though it may make sense to limit consumption of them for other reasons). In fact, because of concerns about trichinosis from pork, it makes a lot more sense in my opinion to buy cured bacon and other pork products. I do.
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Thank you so much. Although it’s easier to find credible information on the internet it still takes work. When the internet first became popular, it was nearly impossible to find good clinical/medical/health information because organic/natural/supplement companies had thousands of websites. I am not against people’s personal preferences if diet, but I rankle when given non scientific advice. Another example is MSG. Not one well researched test with publication and peer review shows any evidence of harm or ‘MSG syndrome.’ In fact, it is extremely helpful in lowering Na intake in diets. I also remember when a tabloid published a phony research paper about bad effects of the drug Doxylamine Succinate which was very helpful in treating morning sickness in pregnant women. Because of a chain of events caused by the tabloid, the FDA pulled the product. It was found that the ‘university’ doing the research was a sham. Carl Sagan was right. His concern about the US was that the ability of Critical Thinking was rapidly disappearing.
And Carl Sagan is supposed to be an example of someone skilled in critical thinking? SHEESH.
What could you possibly have against the wonderful and brilliant-by-any-standard Carl Sagan?
“…Isaac Asimov described Sagan as one of only two people he ever met whose intellect surpassed his own. The other, he claimed, was the computer scientist and artificial intelligence expert Marvin Minsky…”
Debbie,
we updated that blog this week, to be more thorough on the topic. Here is a link. http://caltonnutrition.com/article.aspx?pid=91
We didnt want anyone to be alarmed unless they found themselves overindulging in numerous possible products with lead and arsenic contamination.
I have not read every comment so this might have been mentioned already, but Chris (and anyone else), I’d like to hear your thoughts on this article: http://www.caltonnutrition.com/article.aspx?pid=86
One of the main reasons I buy nitrate-free bacon is because it is nearly impossible to find pork that is humanely raised, antibiotic free and a from a quality source without it being free of nitrates. They seem to go hand in hand. Quality is the key.
I think you might be kidding yourself here. There’s no direct correlation. Just because they use celery juice doesn’t mean their hogs are out in sunshine and not eating crap for food. The health of the animal far outways a sprinkling of nitrates in my option. We are finding more and more humanely raised pork sources in our area and we supplement our supply from US Wellness Meats. They ship to anywhere.
A Fantastic source of humane meats is the site EATWILD.COM. Farms and their products are listed by state. US Wellness Meats is mentioned in so many posts here, but their prices are definitely niche market prices. Many of the farms keep their prices lower as a consideration for their local economy, but ALSO will ship. I highly recommend looking for local humane farms for your healthier meats. It is worth the time to read through the listings at the eatwild.com site and make a few phone calls. I pay about a third of the prices that US Wellness Meats charge and my meats are also shipped to my door and help support both family farms, as well as larger farms who are raising their farm animals in a humane way and set a great example that big agriculture could emulate if so forced to do so by the buying public. !!!
Thanks Chris.
You probably saw this article which Mark Sisson linked to on Friday.
http://www.caltonnutrition.com/article.aspx?pid=86
(Summary: It agrees nitrates are not a problem. However, “according to the Food Chemical Codex (3rd addition, National Academy of Sciences), industrial sodium nitrate (synthetic) is allowed to contain residual heavy metals, including lead and arsenic…. ‘acceptable levels’ to be found as a residue in sodium nitrate are roughly 667x and 300x the levels recognized as deleterious to human health…”)
Is this an issue you considered? Does it give you any pause?
Sorry, I just saw that mira & jayson calton already posted this info above.
we would love to hear thoughts on it too. while you dont end up with much sodium nitrate ( and even less lead and arsenic) in the food. why bother adding it when we have safer options.It adds to the total lead and arsenic in our bodies and as Chris pointed out it is in rice, our juice etc. So awareness is key i think and it yu eat a lot of it, try to def remove that ingredient.
Chris-Thank you for everything you do on a daily basis. I seriously don’t know how you keep going everyday. You put great information out there for free and people have to leave negative comments or try to prove you are wrong. You write an awesome article filled with facts, then you have to go through the comments and re-state them over and over. Not sure where you find the time everyday!
Actually, most of the critical responses have been fairly polite and on-topic, as has Chris. I for one want to see healthy, substantive debate on the issue. A bunch of “great post” comments really are not worth my time to read. I have seen quite a bit of dogmatism on the pro-bacon side, though. And at least some of the seemingly valid criticisms (see the Harry Banaharis posts) are going ignored.
Isn’t the whole point of paleo to get away from this reductionist view of food– this nutrient or that additive, incomplete mechanisms used to rationalize why this process or that one is ok?
Meat curing is a pretty sophisticated process Besides, here’s a meta study that shows most of the observations weigh in AGAINST process meat: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/121/21/2271.short
Hi Chris,
I appreciate the article but I am not sure you have made the case. I am open to the concept but did not find your references compelling and I think you are making a big leap between when trying to call processed foods containing nitrites and forming nitrosamines….. and the vasodialatory effects of NO2 similar. Curios to hear your thoughts. Hope I am not being too much of a stickler 🙂
Michael
What does it matter if the foods contain nitrites and form nitrosamines? That’s the whole point of this article. There’s no convincing evidence that nitrites or nitrosamines cause cancer:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22889895
You keep re-posting the same passages! But you still are not addressing the real questions that people are asking! I sense that others are feeling frustrated, too, by your lack of real answers to real questions. Your repeat passages are not doing it.
I think this is a piece to the great bacon debate that you are missing… LEAD and ARSENIC.
we just blogged on it and thought that you might want to share this info with you readers. http://caltonnutrition.com/article.aspx?pid=86
here is a taste :
“While we can’t be sure how much of these heavy metals make it into our food, let’s take some time for a little basic math. The Food Chemical Codex referenced earlier allows for up to 10,000 ppb (parts-per-billion) of lead and 3,000 ppb of arsenic to be present in synthetic sodium nitrate. However, the levels for drinking water, at which these chemicals present a serious health risk, set forth by the EPA are 15 ppb and 10 ppb, respectively. This means that the “acceptable levels” to be found as a residue in sodium nitrate are roughly 667x and 300x the levels recognized as deleterious to human health, again respectively. We repeat, still think that a nitrate is just a nitrate?”
Chris, I am perplexed why you have not responded to this post? In my opinion, there are just too many questions to declare nitrates as safe and healthy especially the post about epidemiological data that you did respond to. Even if the epidemiological data is flawed or not reliable, it still raises questions, in my opinion, too many questions. However, this post about potential LEAD and ARSENIC contamination in synthetic sodium nitrate trumps all concerns mentioned in all of the responses. If this is true, I cannot see how sodium nitrate can be declared healthy. So either you think this is not true, or for some other reason think this is not important. If you have the time, please respond – not to me – but this post from mira and jayson calton. Thanks so much!!
Great article Chris. You show great patience in your responses to the comments! I’d be banging my head against a wall. Do you have any thoughts to Paul Jaminet’s 3 part pork is bad series?
I do think caution is warrante with pork. But as long as it’s cooked thoroughly, or cured/brined in advance, I don’t see a problem with it. And it’s delicious!
Hi. In another article you mentioned nuts are high in omega 6, and may want to be avoided by those who “over-use”. In another you mentioned coconut milk may cause digestive distress in people with IBS or gut issues. These articles were written with paleo and LC’ers in mind. However when issues of sensitivities and migraines are addressed in these responses to your article about nitrates, it is not addressed and potential over-use of nitrated commercial cured meats is not acknowledge either. You mention the amounts of nitrated commercially raised cured meats ingested would be trivial in the diet – is this coming directly from the study or is it your personal observations of all the paleo and LC’ers you have worked with? I personally, in my very limited scope, have met numersous paleo and LC’ers who commonly eat bacon, hot dogs, and other nitrate cured commercially raised meats in their Daily diet, many times as the base of two meals a day, often charred and often in large amounts. What would your answer be to the omega 6 imbalance issue, and even the nitrate research with this fact in mind?
Notice also the word cause, and Not does not promote cancerous or pre-cancerous conditions. Most studies Over-do the amounts ingested, to the point of impossibility of human consumption, but trivial amounts in the diet are referred to considering this newer “better” study.
I also assume the study did not address the dye issue and also did not use charred meats.
The happiness of the buffet seeker’s bacon comment should indicate something to you. Yes, it is delicious, as is coconut milk and are nuts, but nitrate-cured conventional bacon doesn’t benefit health, according to your article, it just doesn’t cause cancer. Whereas coconut milk and nuts packaged and produced properly, do have health benefits for most people.
I am glad that chemical nitrates packaged into my commercially raised pork will not cause cancer! However, should I therefore eat More of these Delicious cured meats to substitute for the coconut milk and nuts I am reducing? Should these people with allergies and sensitivies go ahead and eat these nitrated commercial cured meats – as it won’t cause them cancer?!
I am happy people have your articles that address some specific issues, and which the many informative replies can introduce a lot of new information to many. I understand as a health professional you must stay somewhat moderate, as not to offend the powers that be that can make licensing issues a nightmare, or to alienate those people from your practice who use labeling words such a “hippie” and limit themselves to mainstream information who could benefit greatly from your approach. So with respect, we can agree to disagree, as I feel many variables were not acknowledged or defined in the study as described and this article was focused on sharing the study results and confirming it was a well executed study.I also thank you for allowing the various input and discussion of issues and related issues. I feel this is a personal service you are allowing, your articles are helpful and well-meaning and your blog is an excellent forum for new and sharing of information.
.
Much respect, being a health professional wading through this borage of conflicting information, and the inherent unspoken pressure of maintaining balance between not insulting commercial interests who can make life difficult for a well-meaning professional, and those potential clients who may be turned off to “hippie” or “radical” ideology , you are doing very well in addressing some little known issues and helping people who may have specific issues. Issues then addressed in the posts which are new to many people.
I commend what you are doing, and as you have replied in other posts, you have the right to stick to your opinion, and we can agree to disagree. Much respect.
Just a note of inconsistency in this article that people are trying to get you to recognize. A common theme among your articles has been to acknowledge people who are ill or suffer from ailments and to address over-use issues and the implications. I feel you are dismissing the issue of omega-6 pufu’s in conventional meats and the possible over-use by paleo and LC dieters. I have a feeling you do love your delicious nitrate cured bacon and are excited to share it does not cause cancer! And that you are a little stubborn and like to make your point, which is why I bring up the common thread in your articles, which is unacknowledged through this post. I really enjoy your articles, they bring up many excellent discussions. I am glad that as a health professionals you have acknowledge the imbalance of omega-6 in conventional meats, assuming it isn’t a problem because of the amount in the diet. Please consider that cured conventional meats ARE a daily part of many paleo and LC people’s diets, and despite it being
oops, last re-written and mistakenly unedited paragraphs are to be ignored, as they were re-written and believed to have been deleted. There does not seem to be a view/edit function. Please edit this out or don’t read last two paragraphs. oops, my apologies!
suggesting that naturally occurring nitrates/nitrites aren’t really different that synthetically manufactured sodium nitrate/nitrite is pretty disappointing. Yes, you may have more “nitrates/nitrites” in products using celery & sea salt, but is mere quantity the issue? In a whole food source, the nitrates/nitrites exist in relationship to other constituents. With synthetic forms, the nitrates/nitrites exist in a relationship to… pink dye? What exactly is in that pink dye? What’s that made out of? What action does it have? And there are other constituents in it as well, that are allowable. What are they? Would they have no impact?
There are SO many reports of people who reliably and strongly react to chemical nitrates/nitrites who don’t react to naturally occurring nitrates/nitrites that it seems that dismissing the difference between the two seems to me a significant oversight.
The health risks associated with cured meat is not the cured meat. The problem may be what it is eaten with. Most low carbers or paleo folk will eat it with vegetables or other protean sources. The majority will eat it with bread and assorted other processed carbs. Any health problem association is probably due to eating the cured meat with bread and soda.
The pizza crust and soda is the problem not the peperoni.
I am not advocating a processed meat diet. Fresh meat is better; however, the amounts or processed meat a normal person would eat should have no effect on a normal person.
Chris, this is good to know, however, for those of us with systemic inflammation issues is it still advisable to limit bacon consumption (to some degree) in favor of lower n-6 meats?
Dear A.J.,
I have a lot of success helping people with systemic inflammation. And I’m interested to know what you already have tried — which protocol, and with what degree of success. Would you please get in touch?
Thank you,
T. Bergenn
Longevity Consultant
510-292-9976
PowerSourceUnlimited.com
So, people think that eating food with Sodium Nitrate is good for you, forget the fact that any additional information that comes out after the initial CAN be nothing more than the industry responsible for placing the Nitrates in the food to do damage control and make it look like the initial report look like a lie.
I mean seriously, think about this, if something is added to natural products to make the food last longer than it’s supposed to, don’t you think that maybe….just maybe it’s not so good for you? GMO’s have been selling everybody genetically modified foods, and yet when these genetically modified foods are thrown in front of animals that aren’t brought up on a farm, they mostly reject them. DEER won’t eat GMO corn.
If food is genetically modified to stop one creature from eating it, that usually means that it can, over time, stop everyone from eating it, you can either take research at face value, or you can stop, think for yourself, and figure out that when you buy a food that has chemicals for ingredients instead of food ingredients, it may not be meant to go into your body. Mono Sodium Glutamate is not good for you, yet it was harkened to be one of the best flavour additives for years, and people debated it…..
So if the lot of you are out there screaming that Sodium Nitrate is good for you, here, believe this one too.
http://i.imgur.com/iG4AX.jpg
Ken,
You need to base your premise in fact. Curing, while it does add flavor, is primarily to prevent botulism, not to “make it last longer”. Smoking and curing are ancient food preservation methods developed to make stuff last longer, certainly, but the modern meat processing methods are more aimed at deadly pathogen control, not shelf life.
And MSG is a umami contributing flavor enhancer and does nothing to prevent illness from soil borne anaerobes or extend shelf life.
I do not think sodium nitrate is “good for me”. However, my forehead wrinkles notwithstanding, I prefer it to botulism.
You have given me a reason to live!
Seriously, that nitrate-free bacon sucks.
I have a source of salt cured pork, without nitrates/trites. I buy it (used to anyway) to avoid the afore mentioned chemicals. Now I will buy it just because it tastes better.
The comments regarding 0mega 6 in commercially raised pork are valid. Feeding any animal corn causes an unbalance, especially in beef. Not to mention the fact that pigs are fed GMO corn/soy. I eat very little cures/conventional meat just because of that. I really think the whole nitrate/trite argument misses a much larger issue. Just avoid commercially produced meat period. I know it’s difficult and I am certainly guilty of the occasional steak or as mentioned salt cured bacon purchase.
But GMO’s are a far more pressing and serious matter than nitrates. BTW, conventionally grown veggies have far more nitrates than organically grown produce.
I would like to be in touch with you. This is such an important angle on this theme.
T. Bergenn
Longevity Consultant
510-292-9976
[email protected]
Bacon has its own disadvantages too without the nitrates, like unseen parasite eggs not killed by stir-frying. Not to mention meat’s bacteria is still “eating up” flesh and multiplying even when you store it at -22 deg celcius. You may also be exposed to CJD. Of course, all who eat Paleo love meat.
Chris, is the combination of sugar and omega 6 particularly unhealthy? In Australia all bacon is cured using sugar.
Great article Chris! I do personally love good quality cured meats (could be my Dutch heritage). I hope this isn’t a dumb question but I’m interested in your perspective on Nitrates in wine and immune reactions. I generally don’t have problems with cured meats but I can have adverse (what appear to be) immune reactions to wines – especially the cheapers ones (which is always a good excuse to drink a more expensive drop :-). I had always put these down to the use of nitrates as preservatives. Why I thought this is that you can buy drops that supposedly remove the nitrates from the wine (I believe it is peroxide which supposedly reacts With the nitrates turning them into NO). This seems to help although I do not have any evidence apart from my own direct experience (which of course does not prove anything). So despite nitrates/nitrites not necessarily being bad for us (especially for healthy people) could they still cause immune issues for those of us with particularly sensitive GI problems? Or would this be caused by something else? I’m sure there are plenty of other possible causes.
Naturally occurring nitrates are different. Also, it’s not that sodium nitrates causes cancer. Sodium nitrates pass through the protective barriers that protect your brain. Sodium nitrates which are in most deli meats as well are being linked to alzheimer’s and dementia, therefore I will still buy nitrate free meats and stick to the naturally occurring nitrates that are found in vegetables and not man made products.